


The Wolfstar Project

by Piyo13



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-20
Updated: 2015-05-12
Packaged: 2018-02-05 09:29:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1813609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Piyo13/pseuds/Piyo13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sirius Black and James Potter, recently graduated students with degrees in biosystems engineering and biochemistry respectively, are thrilled to get joint offers at Hogwarts, Inc., one of the premiere research laboratories in the country. Once stationed to work on the mysterious 'Project Wolfstar', however, they begin to realize that their easily-acquired jobs might have another dimension. Particularly for Sirius and his new... <i>assignment.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Gemini

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which jobs are taken, exclamations are made, and assignments are assigned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, first things first- I apologize heartily and in advance for the surely copious amounts of Americanisms I will be making while writing for these characters. As of right now, the setting is merely 'English-speaking country'. Interpret as you will. If anyone out there volunteers to Brit-pick for me, however, I'd be very grateful ^^
> 
> Secondly, this entire AU is due to (and dedicated to) luciferwearsamwinchester. Thank you so, so much, for everything <3
> 
> And thirdly, enjoy!

“Now, if you’ll just initial the green highlighted areas once again, and please sign the yellow… yes, exactly, thank you.” The secretary- Sirius had already forgotten his name- reached over and took the initialed and signed sheets from under both Sirius and James’ pens, flicking through the stack of sheets with a soft tutting noise. Apparently assured that everything was in order, he added the sheets to the already formidable binder of read documents, before deftly flipping into a nearby folder and pulling out yet more paper. Sirius only just managed to stifle a groan.

His action did not go unnoticed by James, who elbowed him sharply in the ribs. Luckily, years of practice had reduced Sirius’ reaction to nothing more than a calm blink (and, he suspected, made the skin above his ribs extra thick)- the secretary, however, was not amused.

“Mr Potter, Mr Black, if you will please focus,” he said, making an awkwardly pursed expression that Sirius had come to internally dub the ‘irritated-but-unable-to-do-anything-about-it’ face. “This is the last paper you will be asked to sign,” he continued, sighing heavily. Under James’ muted whoop of joy, Sirius almost thought he could make out the words ‘for now’, but decided that, all things considered, it _really_ wasn’t worth pushing that point for now.

“Right, right, yes, of course, very sorry Mr Podmore, carry on,” James said, the picture of civility and politeness. Sirius would have laughed, were he not too busy imitating the exact same behavior. After all, if they had to work with the secretary later on, it would be nice to have him on their side… _although_ , he mused, taking in the highly unimpressed look on Podmore’s face, _might have shot that one in the foot already._

“As I was saying, this is a very important document, one that necessitates you to read it for yourselves. If you’ll take a minute to do so, and sign at the bottom. Any questions, of course, should be directed to me,” Podmore finished with yet another sigh. The man’s sighs were really starting to grate on Sirius’ nerves… he shook his head, allowing what hair hadn’t been bound back into a ponytail flap across his eyes, before reading.

He blinked a few times. _Fucking legalese…_ He flicked his eyes sideways to James, who appeared to actually be making an attempt to decipher the words. Sirius sighed. Might as well have a go, then. He squinted.

He glanced towards James again, content to finally meet his friend’s eyes- and James shrugged. Geniuses though they might have been, legalese was beyond even them. Sirius flicked his eyes toward Podmore, who was busy triple-checking the binders and muttering softly under his breath. James blinked twice before looking over to Podmore and clearing his throat. Podmore looked up at him, an eyebrow raised.

“Terribly sorry to disappoint you, Mr Podmore sir, but Sirius and I only speak standard English and science, not legalese,” James said, his face completely straight and his tone sincere- that was an art he’d mastered in school, when trying to talk his and Sirius’ way out of trouble. Sirius resisted the urge to smile fondly at the memories, instead adopting a suitably disheartened expression, nodding sadly as James ran a hand through his already tousled hair.

Mr Podmore sighed, but set the binders aside and leaned slightly forward, tapping a practiced finger along a few lines of text. “In essence, this is an agreement to secrecy. While working for Hogwarts, you are likely to encounter various types of sensitive information. Should there be a breach of secrecy, any and all employees will be subject to interrogation under a lie detector.” His finger moved. “As employees you willingly enter this legally binding contract that will prevent you from divulging any details to any third parties and- this is important- via any method of communication that is not secured _by the company._ Yes, this does include non-company cell phones and email. To summarize: you are not allowed to talk about what you see or do at Hogwarts outside of Hogwarts. If you think you are capable of that, please sign. If you are incapable, please spare me the paperwork involved with having to sue you and walk out the door.”

Sirius nodded slowly, eyes resting on the particular phrases that Podmore had indicated. To the best of his knowledge, what the words said and what Podmore said appeared to line up… _Ah, to hell with it. Not as if I got anyone but James to talk to, anyways_. Well, _that_ was a depressing thought, if nothing else… Sirius shook his head again. He could focus on his internal emotional crises at later times- for the moment, he had papers to sign.

And then, with a flourish, he had no more papers to sign. Podmore once again relieved Sirius and James of their papers, sticking them into the binders.

“Excellent,” he muttered, moving objects around on his immaculate desk almost imperceptibly. Then he looked Sirius in the eye. “I will go get these papers correctly filed and call in Professor McGonagall, who will be your supervisor here at Hogwarts. You are to wait here. Please do not leave the room- or touch anything.” With that, Podmore was up and out the door, and Sirius had practically pounced into James’ lap, full of puppyish excitement that finally had an outlet.

“James! James James James James Ja-”

“Yes, that _is_ my name, however did you guess?” James replied sardonically, but he was grinning broadly, his glasses just slightly skewed, his hands resting on Sirius’ hips. Sirius squirmed, acting none of his twenty-six years.

“James we’re in _Hogwarts_ ,” Sirius intoned, voice hushed and, well, _serious._ “We’re in Hogwarts and we’re not even here illegally we’re here because we’re being _hired_ \- James Motherfucking Potter. We now have _careers_. This is an _incredibly_ serious matter-”

“I agree, Sirius,” James said, and, recognizing the tone, Sirius opened his mouth to stop James, but James deftly placed his hand over Sirius’ face and kept talking. “Yes, Sirius, I do rather think this is a serious matter deserving of serious attention, because you are so seriously serious, Sirius, and-”

Sirius threw James’ hand off his face, scowling. “We’ve been friends for eight fucking years, aren’t you tired of that yet?” he grumbled. James merely beamed back at him.

“Nope!” he said. In spite, Sirius moved James’ glasses so that they were even more crooked.

“Hmph,” Sirius grumbled, moving to dislodge himself from his admittedly uncomfortable position on top of James. James let him go, but his grin grew wider, his eyes twinkling.

“We’re really here, aren’t we?” Sirius flashed him a grin as he mock-dusted off his clothes. “Makes all that school finally worth it…”

“Hey, we waited for this. We waited… uh, say, how many years of school did we even _have?_ ”

“Together, or total?”

“Total.”

“Um…” James counted on his fingers. “Twenty?”

“We waited _twenty years_ for this! In _school!”_

“Yeah, maybe _you_ did, but I was dead-set on becoming an astronaut when I was in eighth grade,” James said, leaning back in his chair and lacing his hands behind his head.

“Yeah?” Sirius asked, sitting himself back down in his own seat. He pulled his hairtie out, and set himself to re-doing his hair so that it wasn’t as completely in his face for whenever ‘Professor McGonagall’ arrived.

“Yeah. But then rocket science proved to be too hard for even this genius,” James said, affecting a sorely miserable façade. Sirius snorted.

“And that’s why you took up biochemistry, is it?”

“Yep!”James said cheerily. “Much easier! Say… what do you think we’ll even be _doing?_ ”

“Honestly?” Sirius asked, leaning back in an imitation of James’ pose. “Considering we’re new and all… they’ll probably have us doing a lot of paperwork to start with. I really hope we get to work with some actual… you know… _experiments._ ”

“Well, Mr Black, it would appear today is your lucky day, then,” said a clipped voice as the door opened fully, admitting a woman that had to be in her late fifties or early sixties, but definitely no less intimidating for that. Every line of her face was chiseled and sharp- even her fucking _hair_ was in a perfect bun, and Sirius ran a hand through the messy strands of his own hair that always escaped his ponytail- and she exuded an aura that demanded attention and deference.

“Ma’am?” Sirius said, after a beat in which she had taken a place on the opposite side of the desk in front of James and himself, setting down two manila folders.

“Minerva McGonagall,” she said simply, extending a hand.

“Sirius Black,” Sirius replied, shaking her hand, somewhat in awe of McGonagall despite his best efforts to the contrary.

“James Potter,” James filled in, likewise taking her hand. McGonagall nodded once, sharply, her sharp glasses adding a level of… of _something_ that quite eluded Sirius but definitely made an impression.

“As I was saying, Mr Black, you’ll be gratified to know that we do not, in fact, make it a practice to hire well-trained biosystems engineers and biochemists with the intention of wasting them on paperwork. You will each have one background experiment to properly monitor, as well as, once you’ve been introduced to your team, which will comprise two more people besides the both of you, an active role to play in those investigations. These,” she said, picking up the manila folders and giving one to both Sirius and James, “contain the details of your current assignment, codename Project Wolfstar. The main component is what you will be working actively on; the subfile contains information on your individual assignment to monitor past experiments. You will be expected to be well-acquainted with the entirety of it upon clocking in tomorrow. Any questions so far?”

Both James and Sirius shook their heads, chorusing “no, ma’am,” at the same time.

“Very well. In that case, follow me. I will take you for a preliminary tour of the Hogwarts laboratories and work spaces, and then you will be allowed to return home. You live together?” she asked, and Sirius and James were completely taken aback by the question.

“Er, yes…?”

“You can address me as Professor if you so choose,” she said, leading the way with quick, measured steps down the corridor, her white lab coat billowing out behind her.

“Er, right. Professor. Yeah, we’re renting a flat together.” McGonagall made a noise of assent, but no one pressed the subject, and the trio descended into mildly confused silence, at least on part of James and Sirius. They all climbed into an elevator, riding it down four floors, into the basement. Or, third floor of the basement… and there were another three floors below that, even. There were no floors above the ground floor.

“The fourth basement floor is the one that you will be conducting all of your research and experiments on. Your access to other levels will be restricted via your ID, which you should pick up at the main office before you leave today.” McGonagall swept out into the opening corridor without waiting for James and Sirius, and they scrambled after her.

The corridors were arranged in various intersecting patterns, and Sirius tried to build a mental map of the place, failing quite spectacularly when McGonagall took a turn to the right and they ended up in a decently-sized room with several tables, a microwave, a fridge, and two sinks and accompanying counters. An electric kettle stood next to an espresso machine.

“This is the main lounge for this floor- it is here that you and any other scientists working on Project Wolfstar will be meeting, as well as where you’ll take your meals, should you so desire.” Then McGonagall turned abruptly and backtracked the way she’d come, Sirius and James trailing after her, thoroughly lost.

“Professor?”

“Yes?”

“Please tell me there’s a map included in these files…” James said wearily, waggling his manila folder.

“As a matter of fact there is, Mr Potter. I assure you, it is within your best interests to have that, at least, well-learned by tomorrow.”

Sirius raised a brow at James, trying to convey _‘is she actually smiling right now?’_ , but, judging by the ‘what the fuck’ face James was making back at him, the communication had been less than fully successful. Sirius sighed sadly and shook his head at James, pulling to a stop just in time to manage not running into McGonagall.

“Mr Black, your subfile should pertain to this specific experiment here,” she said, gesturing to a door to her right. Curious, Sirius leaned up, trying to see through the thin sliver of glass. He could barely make out two glowing cylinders and lots of dark shadows before footsteps alerted him to the other two leaving. Sirius cast one last glance, then read the plaque by the door.

_‘WOLFSTAR—GEMINI’,_ it read. Sirius huffed, then jogged and caught up to James, who was looking in a room of his own. Sirius looked through what little bit of the window he could see without James’ head blocking it; this room was also filled with slightly glowing cylinders, although the glow was a warm tone rather than a cool one. ‘ _WOLFSTAR—HYDRUS’_ was written on the plaque next to that door.

“Come along then, I will escort you back upstairs. Don’t forget to pick up your IDs, or else I’m afraid you will be able to neither open the doors nor work the elevator tomorrow.” McGonagall led the way back through the maze and to the elevator, and they rode up in silence. Once the doors dinged open, McGonagall stepped aside, allowing James and Sirius to walk in front of her and thus, towards the exit. “You’re scheduled to check in and meet your new teammates at nine o’clock tomorrow morning. Please do not be late,” she said, before turning and vanishing down a side corridor.

Sirius and James exchanged a glance.

“Well,” James said. “That was… an interesting first day.”

“Mm,” Sirius agreed, his mind racing. _Gemini and Hydrus…_ he mulled the names over while waiting by the service desk to retrieve his ID. By the time he and James were walking across the parking lot towards Sirius’ old but serviceable car, he still hadn’t touched on anything in particular.

_Well_ , he brooded. _At least McGonawhatever made sure I’d be reading her damn paperwork tonight…_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also- I figure you should know- there isn't really a set update schedule here, I'm playing it by ear until I can get my shit together ^^;;
> 
> And I'll be tracking the tag 'fic: the wolfstar project' while writing this; I'll post tumblr updates there as well ^^


	2. Canis Minor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Cave, canicula!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [etches on gravestone]: i'm writing i swear

“Here you go,” James said, voice rough, as he thrust something at Sirius’ face. Or hands. Whichever. Sirius’ head was throbbing too much to really process or care at the moment.  Eventually the aroma of strong, strong coffee cut through the haze, and Sirius looked up at James from where he was laying down on the couch. Slowly sitting up— _slowly_ —Sirius blinked away the dizzy spots of blackness that encroached on his vision, then looked down at what James proffered him, ready to thank him. Only—

“That’s like, half a gallon of water, mate.”

“Drink up, we have to be at _work_ in an hour, won’t do any good to show up hungover,” James replied, shoving the huge bottle at Sirius with heightened insistency.

“I’ll have to piss like a racehorse,” Sirius grumbled, forcing his hands to obey him and hold the bottle. He concentrated best he could through the pulsing noise above his temple to bring the water to his mouth.

“So be it,” James said, without his usual theatricality. That, more than anything else, indicated to Sirius that James must have been in an equally bad state. “You can have coffee once you’re done,” James added, lifting his own mug slightly and heading back to the kitchen.

Sirius grunted in reply, taking a steadying breath before downing the water in large gulps. He paused halfway through to draw breath, then finished the water.

“Eurgh,” he told James. “I can feel it sloshing in my stomach.”

“Wonderful, that means it’s working.”

Sirius raised an eyebrow at James, who replied by removing the bottle from Sirius’ hands and replacing it with a mug of steaming coffee. Sirius sniffed, sighing appreciatively.

“Snob,” James said, taking a seat beside Sirius on the couch.

“Yeah, yeah,” Sirius replied, not bothering to be contradictory. It was useless, anyways, not only because James had the stubbornness of a hard-headed mule, but also because it was true. One thing his blue-blooded upbringing had left him with was the want—or need, according to James—for high-quality coffee.

Ten minutes later, and sure enough, Sirius felt the dire need to piss like a racehorse. Feeling human enough thereafter, he set about scrounging most-clean clothes, brushing his teeth and hair along the way, before grabbing a second cup of coffee and following James out the door.

Morning traffic wasn’t as bad as they’d thought it would be; they’d left fifteen minutes earlier than usual (for the first—and so far only—time in his life, James had insisted on being responsible) and thus arrived at work twenty minutes before they were supposed to clock in. As they stepped into the lobby, Podmore greeted them with a raised eyebrow.

“Morning, Mr Podmore!” Sirius trilled, thankful that his second mug of coffee allowed him to appear at least somewhat awake. And, judging by the quickly-manifesting annoyance Podmore was exhibiting, just as bothersome as usual. Sirius grinned.

After a mutter that sounded suspiciously like ‘too early’, Podmore motioned them through the thick wooden doors to the right of his desk.

“Professor McGonagall gave you the preliminary files, yes?” he asked, leading them through another doorway they’d never been through before, to a wall covered mainly with little cubbyholes.

“Ah, yes, er, very vague ones. She made them out to… you know, have a bit more detail in them,” James said. Sirius snorted. He very much doubted that between being the first to propose a toast to their new jobs and being the first to fall asleep James had had _any_ time to actually _read_ the files. Not to say Sirius had done any better, but nonetheless (a quick skim through while stuck at stoplights was fine, right?).

“Yes, of course they were. We can’t have delicate information simply roaming the streets. These will be your mailboxes while working here,” Podmore said, sniffing and indicating two adjacent cubbyholes. “Any memos or files directed at or for you will be found here. As you can see, you already have several files withing—these pertain more to the Wolfstar Project and your own specific roles within it.”

“Ah.”

Podmore checked his watch. “You still have a quarter hour before your shift actually starts. I can show you down to where your break room will be and you can get started reading, if you’d like.”

“That’d be great, thanks,” James said, glancing towards Sirius, who nodded his assent.

Fifteen minutes later, James was groaning. “I can’t believe I agreed to being led down through this fucking _maze_ to read _this_!” he exclaimed, dropping his head to the metallic table and allowing his sheaf of files to fall on top of his head.

Sirius peered at him over his own binder-clipped stack. “Good read?”

“Sirius. O Sirius, loyal friend or mine—why did we ever leave the university?”

“I was under the impression we left because we had graduated, but—"

"—nay, say no more, we are simply doomed to a life of trials and tribulations, of cruel, meaningless ink—"

"You don't like it?" Sirius asked, concerned. He was rather interested in his assignment, but if James wasn't…

"No, there's just lots of big words and I thought I was done with those for good," James said, sticking out his lower lip. Sirius stared at him for a second before chucking all his files and hitting James square in the head.

"Ow! The fuck—"

"You imbecile," Sirius muttered, reaching over to grab his papers. His hand was intercepted by James'.

"But dearest friend! You cannot willingly abandon me thusly! The horrors of…" James looked both directions furtively. "Of _good vocabulary_."

"James," Sirius said lovingly, leaning forward over the table and reaching up to cup his cheek with one hand. "I'm so glad to hear you made it past secondary school, truly, what would my life be—"

"Oh, sorry, am I interrupting something?" said a harsh, clipped voice from the doorway.

"—without your wisdom." Sirius dragged his fingers slowly along the length of James' jawbone, staring ardently at him the whole while.

"No, not at all," he replied when he finally broke eye contact. As he looked over to the speaker, the first thing he noticed was that there were two- one woman whose hair was the color of bright rust, and the other was a short, somewhat pudgy brunet who appeared rather nervous.

"Er, hi," James said, looking a little star-struck. Sirius frowned. He only hoped that look didn't mean what he thought it did…

The woman sniffed. "I suppose you're our new team members?"

"Depends," Sirius said. He tilted his chair back. The woman didn't bat a lash.

"You're on the Wolfstar Project, are you not?"

"Yes," James answered.

"I'm Lily Evans," she said, extending a hand. James hurriedly reached out to shake it.

"James Potter."

"Sirius Black. Like the star."  Lily didn't react beyond a soft 'hm'.

"And this is the fourth member of our group…"

"Peter Pettigrew," the man said, extending a hand, which Sirius and James shook in turn.

"Alright, now that we're all introduced," Lily said, with the clear air of authority about her that none of the guys dared to challenge, "we'll start out by doing our daily check-ins on our sub-experiments. Peter and I have been covering yours for the last two weeks, each one takes about fifteen minutes to do… so in fifteen minutes we'll meet back here, and we'll start some discussion on the main body of the Wolfstar Project. Good?"

"Perfect," James said.

"Sure," Sirius said.

Peter Pettigrew didn't say anything, choosing instead to nod. Lily Evans was intimidating enough on day one; Sirius couldn't imagine working with her and only her for two weeks. At least he had James. Possibly.

"Jaaaaaames," Sirius called, and James snapped to, following Sirius out of the break room and into the corridor where Sirius thought their experiments were located.

"Sirius… did you see her?" Sirius shot James a glance.

"Yeah, so?"

"'So'? _'So'?_ She's bloody _gorgeous,_ Sirius! A goddess! A- a- oh God Sirius I think I'm in _love,"_ James finished, looking at Sirius with a thoroughly bewildered expression. Sirius patted James' arm.

"Ah, yes. True love. I'm sure the five minutes you've known her have let your emotions run very deeply," he said, not even trying to keep the mocking tone out of his voice.

"Oh, bugger off," James said, slapping Sirius' hand away. "Just because _you_ are somehow blind and impervious to feminine charms—"

"I'm not _blind_ and yes, she's pretty, but James? Really? _Love?_ " James flushed a bit.

"Okay _maybe_ I overstated things, but—"

"Maybe?! You call that _maybe?_ I shudder to think what a full affirmative from you would look like…"

"Oh, here we are," James said, stopping abruptly and grabbing Sirius' arm, bringing him to a stop as well. They were in the same corridor McGonagall had showed them yesterday. To the right hung the plaque _WOLFSTAR—HYDRUS_ and to the left and slightly farther down, Sirius' own: _WOLFSTAR—GEMINI._

"Right," Sirius said, calling upon his old trick of 'ignore misgivings and nervousness and neither will be a problem'.  He strode purposefully towards the door, gripping the handle as he looked over to James, who was doing the same. "Ready?"

"Ready."

"On three?"

"No, _five_. Of course three, you nitwit."

"One…"

"Two…"

"Three!" they said together, opening the doors with less of a dramatic push than they would have, were they not in a hitherto-spotless laboratory. The inside of the room was eerily quiet when Sirius entered. He closed the door softly behind him—after making sure it wasn't locked, he wasn't _stupid_ —and turned back to face the main portion of the room, whose twin glowing tanks cast an eerie light over everything.

And, well- Sirius wasn't sure what he'd been expecting to be _in_ the tanks, based off the parts of the report he'd gotten to, but it certainly wasn't… well. A gorgeous naked guy, to put it simply.

Then Sirius' senses caught up to him. _No, nope, gorgeous naked guy is actually… er…_ he opened his manila folder, flipping through pages to get to the one he wanted—where he'd left off reading, after the specifications of chromosomal patterning and 'specific genes of note', of which there were at least a hundred, and Sirius had only managed to get through the first five or so before _James_ had _interrupted…_

Ah, there it was.

 

> _Experiment I, codename Romulus, developed from the embryo to have the correct  
> _ _phenotype for the purposes of this trial run. However, concern was demonstrated_  
>  _upon discovering that brain tissue had not developed to the specified levels_.
> 
> _Bulky, thick fur is suspected to have originated from the small sample of  
> _ Ursus arctos horribilis _DNA that was inserted into Chromosome 19. Snout,_  
>  however, is strongly derivative of Canis lupus lupus, _though other bodily features_  
>  _appear to constitute a rather uniform blend across the board_.
> 
> _As previously stated, due to regulations on brain-to-body ratio necessary for this  
>  project, Romulus is unfit for duty. _
> 
> _Experiment II, codename Remus, developed from the embryo with an astonishingly_  
>  _human phenotype. This pattern has held for the entirety of Remus' development._  
>  _Following along with the human phenotype was the development of brain tissue,_  
>  _which puts Remus into the given parameters for brain-to-body ratio, unlike Romulus_.
> 
> _It has been difficult to predict what phenotypic characteristics, if any, Remus has  
>  apart from the strong resemblance to _ Homo sapiens. _As it is, Remus is unfit for duty._
> 
> _Because neither experiment has achieved consciousness, further tests have had to  
>  be suspended. Audiovisual stimulus to the brain was not suspended, in hopes that  
>  one day the Experiments will achieve consciousness. _

Sirius tried to quell the chill that ran up his spine as he finished reading. Suddenly, the data on chromosomal changes made so much more sense… and, truthfully, scared him. _Did they really use human DNA for_ experiments? Sirius thought, even as he gazed through the suspension liquid in the tank to Experiment II, obvious proof that yes, yes they had. Whoever 'they' were…

Sirius checked the beginning and end of the stack of papers, looking for a byline or for some mention of creator of the project, but there was none. After a few second, he shrugged. _Can be dealt with later. When I'm not on the clock. I wonder what James has discovered…_ Sirius shrugged again and flipped back over to the so usefully labeled 'Experiment Protocol'.

Inside was a detailed list on how to run the machines—which, Sirius learned, not only provided nutrition to the Experiments, but also cleaned up after their waste and, essentially, kept them in peak physical and mental form.

He also learned that Experiment I's mouth was, in fact open, and this factoid through the act of almost shitting himself when he turned and saw fangs the size of his pinky finger jeering at him through a layer of Plexiglas.

 _Okay, okay—life support systems restocked with nutrients and hormones, back-up generator still prepped and ready to be called on, audiovisual stimulation content exchanged out for a completely new, unopened one… that should be everything._ Sirius looked over the list one more careful time. Nothing particularly stood out to him as not having been completed, so he snapped his manila folder shut and turned to the Experiments.

"Well," he said. "Pleasure doing business with you, I hope our arrangement will stay favorable to the both of us." He bowed with a flourish before leaving the laboratory, stepping out in the corridor and closing the door behind him. He peeked into James' laboratory, and, seeing his back turned, began to make his way back to the break room.


	3. Boötes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Like sheep to the slaughter and the herdsmen besides..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember chapter 1's "haha jk no ACTUAL countries in this fic!"? Right, well, that's gone, I gave in and made them in England. I only speak American though, so just... pretend it's all a bit more English-sounding in your heads while you read, okay? Awesome.

Sirius was the first to return to the room, a fact which surprised him. He checked his phone, trying to determine how long he'd actually taken—clearly less than the fifteen prescribed minutes, but then again, considering he hadn't thought to look at his phone _beforehand_ , that didn't help him much.He'd even taken the time to stop by James' door, peering in, but James had had his back turned and appeared to be preoccupied with something else. So Sirius had walked on, expecting at least Lily Evans to be waiting—but nope, the room was empty.

Sirius decided to take the chance to thoroughly explore. The room appeared to have, at first glance, a fairly standard setup—at least four sinks, spaced pretty evenly around, two fume hoods, and a good array of machinery that Sirius would classify as falling broadly under the category of 'science'.

Picking a side at random, he began going through the cabinets, opening all drawers along the way. As with the setup on the counter, most of it was basic sciencey goodness—two cabinets full of various beakers, a drawer of assorted pens, another cabinet full of flasks of a variety of shapes and sizes. At least five microscopes, hidden under their plastic coverings, were found next to several binders (which contained only loose paper). One entire cabinet was entirely full of latex gloves, in all sizes and even two colors.

Eventually, though, the contents of the cupboards—which spanned all four walls—began to get more specific to what Sirius would have expected from a high-level genetic and biochemical engineering facility. Boxes full of (what upon closer inspection proved to be) syringes, bottles full of numerous powdered substances and liquid solutions, at least two boxes full of microvials and an accompanying PCR machine, a container helpfully labeled 'lateral strip tests', and one somewhat less helpfully labeled 'DO NOT BURN, PLEASE' (Sirius had _really_ wanted to open that one, but it was taped shut). There were also two safes, three small jugs of industrial cleaning solution, and a cleverly hidden mini-fridge with bottles upon bottles inside.

Sirius was in the process of turning one of the tin-foil-covered bottles around to read the label on the highlighter-yellow piece of tape—"Saline, .09g/L"—when the door opened. Sirius shut the door quickly, turning around with a winning smile.

"I wouldn't move anything around if I were you," Peter supplied helpfully. "Lily gets in a right state when strangers touch the lab equipment. And materials."

Sirius thought back to the string of looked-through boxes and slightly shifted bottles he'd left in his wake. "Nah, didn't touch anything, don't worry. Thanks for the heads-up, though," he said, still smiling. Peter smiled back at him, seemed a bit surprised at the thanks.

"You're welcome," he replied.

"So tell me," Sirius began, moving towards the table in the center of the room and taking a seat, Peter following his lead a few seconds later. "What is your… she called it a 'sub-experiment', didn't she?"

Peter nodded, seemingly thinking over his words carefully. "At the moment I'm just taking care of—"

Before Sirius could find out what, exactly, Peter was taking care of, the door flew open a bit louder than necessary, yielding a certain James Potter, who, admittedly, looked a bit more shocked than he normally did, as well as sported a lab coat he definitely hadn't been wearing earlier.  Which, upon closer inspection, appeared to be a tad bit wet. Peter gave him a look of sympathy.

"You're with Hydrus, aren't you?"

James eyes him warily, before nodding with a grimace. Peter gave him a sympathetic nod.

"I was doing that one before, too. Not the… cleanest."

James snorted. "Or driest, really."

Peter inclined his head, nodding again with a grimace. "That too."

Behind them, the door opened, and Sirius swiveled his chair to watch as Lily walked in, the very picture of confidence and, if he was being honest with himself, a touch of danger. Sirius flicked his eyes over to James, who was openly staring. Sirius kicked his shin, causing James to flinch and round upon Sirius, who mouthed 'quit staring' before focusing back on Lily. A huff to his right meant that his message had gone through. Sirius smiled.

"Alright, now that that's all done—I trust neither of you had any problems?" Lily asked, a manila folder already open in her hand as she raised an eyebrow at Sirius and James. She barely let a second lapse before returning to the papers in her hand, flitting through them and pulling a small paperclipped stack to the fore. "Today our plan is to discuss how we're going to move forward in reaching our Aims of research, once we're done we'll call that a day and we can go further in-depth tomorrow, we only need to have a broad idea for now."

"Right," Sirius said, leaning back in his chair and throwing his arm behind his head. "What's our Aim, again?"

Lily leveled Sirius with a look that made his blood run cold.

"Did you even _read_ the packet that you were given? Professor McGonagall _assured_ me you got it, and she even went on to say you two, and I quote, 'had promise'. I'd hate to have to prove her wrong already."

Sirius gulped. "Er—"

"Don't answer," Lily cut him off with an accompanying hand motion. She put down the manila folder, finally taking a seat at the end of the table. She interlaced her fingers, gave Sirius (and James, this time) another _look_ , and began talking. "I assume you know about the terrorist organization that calls themselves the 'Death Eaters'?"

"Yeah," James answered, somehow not having noticed the waves of evil intent exuding from Lily (Sirius resolved to ask him about that later, when he wasn't being pinned to his seat by said waves of evil intent).

"Right, well, if you haven't read the debriefing packet, then all you know is that the Death Eaters are a terrorist organization, most likely based in England. The truth is, they are definitely based in England, and in fact have been giving MI6, among others, quite some trouble for a while now. Their actual death toll is also actually significantly higher than the newspapers and media are reporting, mostly because only a small fraction of the actual deaths they've caused are explicitly traceable to them. For example, you heard of the recent collapse near Abingdon?"

"The Science Centre? I thought that had all been resolved?"

"Yes, the radiation was certainly contained. However, the Centre was simultaneously broken into and some important work on fusion research was stolen."

Even James broke out of his adoring reverie to frown at that. "Research?" Lily nodded. "How do we even know it was the work of the Death Eaters though?"

"It was their signature trace. Nothing conclusive enough to be considered... definite, but the correlation between confirmed Death Eater action and the traces left at Abingdon are uncanny. Seriously, this would have been so much easier if you guys had actually _read_ the report like you were supposed to—"

"—sorry—"

"—but look," she said, thrusting a photo forward. It was grainy, the timestamp and the angle confirming it as a security camera of some sort. On the photo was… well, the more Sirius looked at it, the less human it appeared to be. It stood upright, that much was certain, but… something was _definitely_ off.

"What _is_ that?" Sirius asked, look of dawning horror on his face.

Lily nodded gravely. "It's the Death Eater's work. As far as we can tell, it's… a kind of supersoldier, I'd guess you'd call it—"

"Please tell me Captain America's not working for terrorists…" James muttered.

"Hail Hydra," Sirius muttered back, earning himself an exasperated eye roll from Lily, and a mutter from Peter.

"Shh, that's _James'_ line…" Upon hearing that, James flicked his eyes to his folder, then widened in comprehension.

" _Hail Hydrus!_ " he whispered back vehemently, and both Sirius and Peter started laughing. Lily rolled her eyes again, although Sirius could have sworn she was also sporting a small smile.

"Alright, _Howling Commandos_ , please get back on topic now. The fact of the matter is that what the Death Eaters are using what are basically biologically engineered superweapons. As far as we've been able to tell, from surveillance that hasn't been wiped, or from the occasional DNA left behind, they're faster, more agile, and more resilient than people, better able to wreak havoc in every way… but they're also not, for example, like dogs, in that they display certain traits of intelligence… beyond that. We still don't know much about them, other than the fact that there are several different ones and that they're all dangerous. They don't seem to care if they're caught on camera, either."

"…that makes it sound like they don't care at all if they're seen," Peter mused. "Do you think that means they believe they're strong enough to… I mean…"

Lily nodded, seemingly in tune with Peter's train of thought. "I was talking with Professor McGonagall earlier, it certainly seems like either a threat or a declaration that they're not afraid of… well, in this case, the security forces. And us."

"Right, right, so hold up—" Sirius began, lifting his hands in a cease-all-motion-gesture. "' _Us'?_ What exactly are _we_ supposed to do? I'm a biosystems engineer, not a terrorist, _despite_ what my parents would undoubtedly say."

Lily leaned forward, resting her weight on her elbows. "Hogwarts has been contracted by the National Security Council and MI5 to find either a method of stopping such a biological weapon, or creating our own counterweapons. Those are our research Aims for now."

She was greeted with silence from James and Sirius, thought Peter was nodding along.

"Whoa, _what_?" James asked, once he'd had enough time to properly ingest the information. Lily shrugged.

"From what I know, they have effective measures against robotic spies and mechanical weapons, and of course people are no problem—but these creatures, whatever they are, are able to circumvent everything. MI5 can't blow up an entire facility just because the one thing might be getting in. So they're looking to us to find solutions."

More silence.

"What does that even _mean_ , though?" James asked, in the tone of voice that implied five question marks instead of one. "Weapons? Like, biochemical warfare? 'Cause I'm _pretty_ sure that was banned in like, '54 or something…"

Lily shrugged again. "I don't know, but that's also not our problem. We—the Wolfstar Project in general, really—we're supposed to create counterweapons."

"What, like flying cats or something?" Sirius snarked.

"It's flying monkeys, you dolt," James rebutted instantly. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Whatever. But no, that was a—" he side-eyed James. "That was an _important_ question. Are we actually… oh, that explains the annotations in my folder. On Gemini. About desired phenotype and the like." Lily nodded.

"Yes, exactly. We're continuing the project, essentially. So far, none of the experiments have actually worked out the way they're supposed to, so… that's what we're working on. Living weapons."

There was another moment of silence, this time heavier and more contemplative than before. Sirius couldn't stand it.

"So!" he said loudly, clapping his hands and making Peter and Lily jump (James was, at this point in his life, more-or-less immune to loud noises coming from Sirius' general direction). "Where do we start?"

* * *

That question, apparently, had been (depending on one's point of view) either the right one or the wrong one to ask, considering the three-hour discussion it sparked. They broke for lunch, Lily and Peter showing James and Sirius where the main cafeteria of Hogwarts was, so that they could eat there if they so chose. Given that neither had had the foresight to bring a lunch and didn't particularly feel like leaving, the cafeteria it was.

There, they were introduced to various people, whose names Sirius all promptly forgot. He'd purposefully avoided greeting at least one of them, who'd been an old acquaintance of his father at some point in time—James had caught Sirius' eye and skillfully maneuvered himself to shield Sirius from his sight, Sirius once again thanking whatever higher beings existed that _James_ existed.

After lunch the four retreated back down to their lab, continuing to discuss their new branch of Project Wolfstar. In the end, they settled on all being able to agree that whatever they had to do, it had to be couched mainly in terms of a predator. It had to be a weapon, after all.

Sirius had grimaced at the phrasing of that once or twice. _Weapon…_ _well… it's not as if animals haven't been used for war since the beginning of it…_

 _Yes_ , said another part of his mind. _But none of them were created by your hand, either._

He shrugged the feeling off. Whatever, it didn't matter.

* * *

When they got home that evening, Sirius collapsed onto the couch, James claiming the over-sized beanbag chair as his own. Sirius eventually spoke first, after a few minutes of silence.

"Well, that was quite a day."

James hummed in agreement.  "I feel like we need some passes or something with clearance levels on them…"

"Think our ID's count?"

"Nah, there's no clearance levels."

"Mm."

"Mmhm."

"So what—"

"How'd you—"

Sirius bent his head back, looking at James mostly upside-down. "You go ahead." James smiled back.

"How'd you think that went, today?" Sirius nodded at the question, then he shrugged halfheartedly.

"I mean… I knew the Death Eaters were a threat, but I'd pictured them as more a… vague threat? And to think _Hogwarts_ has been contracted to take them on…"

"I don't know if 'taking them on' is the right word you're looking for…" James said, leaning back into the beanbag and swinging his legs up to rest on the couch's arm, next to Sirius' head. "More like… yeah I dunno."

"S'what I thought," Sirius grumbled at him, scrunching his nose at James' socked feet. James wriggled his toes in response. Then Sirius sat up, resting his arms on the back of the couch and angling his head towards James. "So tell me what this mysterious Hydrus involves? Please say no Red Skulls?"

James chuckled, but shook his head. "No, it's like… _eels_ and shit. Well, not literal shit—actually, no, wait, there definitely _is_ literal shit, I had to clean out the filter, that was _gross_ —but it's like. Eels. And. Snakes? Maybe? There were scales. And so much splashing."

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Eels and shit. I see."

"Yeah don't look at me I just do what I'm told," James replied, and Sirius snorted.

"Yeah, _right._ "

"Shut up."

"You wish is—"

"If you say 'my command' I swear—"

"—my definitely-not-command, then, geez. Touchy touchy."

"Yeah, well, _you_ didn't get splashed with eel-snake water!"

"Eel-snake water."

" _Shut up._ And no, don't say anything."

Sirius mimed locking his lips, and James let out an exasperated sigh.

"Okay, no, I lied, tell me about… Gemini, right?"

"Yeah," Sirius said. "Gemini is… hm. Well, you know the Roman founding legend?"

"What, the twins?"

"Yeah. That's. That's literally it," Sirius said, shrugging, definitely _not_ mentioning the human-looking one. Because he still wasn't sure if it could actually be a human—there were laws against using human DNA for experiments, right? Or, humans, period? That had to be against _some_ ethical code somewhere…

"Huh?"

"It's these two… creatures, I guess. Vaguely wolf-like. I just had to make sure the proper nutrients were in their holding chambers and stuff."

"Ah. Fun?"

Sirius leveled James with an upside-down glance. " _So totally."_

James grinned. "Knew it. Anyways, on to the important stuff—can we talk about how damn _smart_ Lily is? And witty, and _gorgeous…_ I'm seriously in love. I want to marry her."

"Wow, James, that's _cold_. And here I thought _I_ was your one and only…"

James immediately pulled a stricken face. "Aw c'mon babe, you _know_ no one would ever replace you…"

Sirius snorted loudly, but smiled nonetheless. "Yeah, unless she has red hair and is named Lily. You're a fucking sap, you know that, Potter?"

"Geez, you're telling _me_ I'm cold—you're pushing me back to last-name basis!"

Sirius rolled his eyes and threw a pillow at James' face, grinning at the aborted squawk that it produced.

"Just do yourself a favor and shut up, the world'll be happier that way."

" _Rude."_

"Yeah, yeah."


	4. Andromeda

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _And you awake by the light of the... lab._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To my dearest Kitkat, I am so sorry this took forever and an age. I have -5 excuses.

On their second day of official employment, Sirius and James arrived late, entering at a run past Mr Podmore, and sincerely wishing that elevators moved faster. Sirius was, unfortunately, the first one to reach the door to the "break" room (they hadn't really much used it for breaks, had they?), and as such, had the dubious honor thrust upon him of opening said door and checking to see if Lily and Peter were already in.

Sirius' shoulders relaxed once the door was open enough for him to get a look at the entire room. "They're not here," he said to James. "Or, well, I think that's Lily's purse right there, so they're probably checking up on their experiments…"

"Oh thank _God_ ," James muttered, pushing past Sirius and depositing his satchel unceremoniously in the chair he'd sat in the day before. Sirius followed after him, setting his bag on the table proper.

"We should go check up on our side-projects," he said, going over to the small bit of wallspace where two labcoats were hung. Inspecting them, Sirius found one embroidered over the front left pocket with ' _Black_ ' in a fancy script. "Hey, James!"

"Yeah?" James asked, wandering over.

"Look, they got us fancy labcoats!"

" _Nice_ ," James said, taking his and inspecting the name. "Like, seriously nice though."

"No kidding," Sirius replied, donning his with a flourish. James put on his as well, and then they grabbed the files with the maintenance instructions. Together, the two walked into the corridor that contained their sub-experiments.

"'Til we meet again!" James proclaimed, mock-saluting Sirius as he opened the door and vanished into the lab proper. Sirius flipped him the bird, then turned and opened Gemini's door.

Just like the previous day, the two tanks emitted a faint glow, and Sirius saw no reason to change it. Running through the checklist again—life support nutrition, life support hormones, life support perflourocarbon tank at acceptable levels, back-up generator, audiovisual stimulation tapes exchanged—Sirius completed each one, talking to himself the whole while.

Definitely not because seeing what was essentially a human in a glowing blue tank weirded him out or anything. Especially not when it twitched. Sirius stared at the slightly pointed fingernails for longer than strictly necessary before jolting himself back into doing work.

"All I'm doing is changing what you're seeing, see? This is probably what all the electrodes on your head are for. They'll take the images and stimulate… well I think they stimulate your optic nerve, most likely. Don't ask me how, these files are shitty and vague and last time I checked that was a very invasive procedure, but whatever. I'm just paid to do my job, you know?"

Sirius didn't get a response.

Tapes exchanged, he watched for a few seconds longer, Experiment II's chest expanding and contracting slightly as it breathed in the perflourocarbon. In the next tank over, Experiment I did the same, the motion made more visible by the long strands of fur that moved with every intake and exhale.

"Well, I'll see you guys tomorrow, I guess." Sirius returned to the break room, getting firmly chastised by Lily for being late, and then watched on in amusement as a slightly damp James got the same treatment.

The rest of the morning was spent in what was essentially glorified bickering—ideas kept being thrown out, then overanalyzed and crushed into the dirt. At some point, Sirius began to keep a 'James vs Lily' scoreboard. Lily, so far, was leading with fifteen quips that had left James speechless. And, seemingly, even more enamored. Sirius rolled his eyes fondly.

Finally, when Peter's stomach growled too loudly to be ignored, Lily let them loose for lunch.

"We'll save you some seats?" Peter asked politely, holding his pre-packed lunch and tagging after Lily.

"Please," James said gratefully, holding his hands together as if in prayer.

"We won't be long, I'll makes James get an _uncomplicated_ lunch for once!" Sirius said brightly, grabbing James' shoulders and steering him around, towards the buffet line. Peter chuckled a bit, but nodded.

"Alright, see you in a few."

Sirius pushed James even faster, earning him admonishment.

"Okay, tomorrow, I don't even _care_ how late we are, I'm _making_ you eat breakfast," James grumbled.

"You realize I'm gonna hold you to that, right?" Sirius said, shelling over the appropriate amount of bills for a lunch.

"I'll wake you up, don't think I won't," James said as he paid.

"Uh-huh." Sirius raised an eyebrow at James. "I'd feel completely and utterly threatening, if it weren't for the fact that—oh, right, _you don't even wake up_."

"How _dare_ you—I mean you're not wrong, but still, _how dare you_ ," James said, scooping up some mashed potatoes onto his plate. "I know your phone password, I can and will set _your_ alarm for earlier, just watch me."

Sirius opted for the rice and knock-off Chinese food. "If I had a penny for every time you've said that…"

"You'd make both of our lives easier if _you_ just set your alarm earlier, you know."

"Why would I do that when I could be _sleeping_?"

"…fair point."

Drinks in hand—orange juice for James, water for Sirius—they walked back into the seating area of the cafeteria, scanning the crowd for Lily and Peter.

"Seriously," Sirius said, "it shouldn't be this hard to find a redhead."

"Ah, there they are!" James exclaimed, shooting Sirius a look full of 'see? Easy!'. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Lead the way, your _greatness_ ," he said, and James grinned, but began to move.

"Oh, I like that one. You'll have to call me that more oft—what the _fuck_ ," he said, his voice changing abruptly from boastful to softly terrorized. Sirius was instantly on high alert.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"That's _Snape_ ," he hissed, jerking his head forward. Sirius followed his line of sight, and saw a stranger sitting next to Lily and Peter. James had stopped moving.

"Snape, Snape…" suddenly it dawned on Sirius. "Wait, Snape as in _the_ Snape? The pisslord from secondary school?"

James nodded, looking for all the world like he'd had a run-in with sour milk. He started walking again, a _very_ fake smile plastered onto his face. Sirius looked back towards the table, examining Snape.

It was very possible that he was being influenced negatively by all the stories James had told him over the course of their friendship, mostly about his and Snape's rivalry, but the dude looked like he'd forgotten his fedora at home. And his _hair._ It was greasy in a way that Sirius would never allow his own to be; he had to suppress a shudder at the thought.

And, as if that weren't already enough, the second the guy spotted James, he outright _glared_. Textbook 'I-hate-your-fucking-guts' _glare_. And that cinched it—Sirius hated him. _Nobody_ looked at James like that, not if Sirius could help it.

Lily and Peter pulled up chairs, and James took the one closest to Lily.

"Sirius, James, this is Severus, he's a friend of mine over in mechanics," Lily said, gesturing towards Snape. "Sev, that's James, and that's Sirius."

Snape sneered. "We've met," he drawled. Sirius _hated_ him. James gave Snape a forced smile.

"That we have."

"…right, well," Lily said, clearly sensing the murderous intent between the two. She quickly directed conversation into neutral topic areas—talking about some new invention or another.

Sirius didn't talk much for the rest of lunch, preferring to listen and glower at Snape whenever the opportunity presented itself (it didn't help that _something_ about Snape seemed familiar, and Sirius couldn't, for the life of him, figure out what it was). Lily and Peter were confusedly trying to keep conversation at somewhat normal-human levels of animosity, and James was clearly exerting himself to not rise to Snape's bait.

Snape was being a right fucking douche.

When they'd all finally finished lunch and were heading back to their break room (and _thankfully_ had lost the slimeball), Lily turned to James.

"What the hell was that?!"

James looked sheepish. "We ah… we didn't have the best relationship in secondary school," he mumbled, tousling his hair.

Lily snorted. " _That_ much was evident…" she said, but dropped the subject.

They were soon back to discussing characteristics of living weapons and analyzing what little evidence the Death Eaters had left behind. This continued until four-ish, when Lily announced she had been asked by her mom to pick up her sister from dance rehearsal. The three men used that as an excuse to take their own leave, as well.

"Not like anything's going to get done without Lily," Peter had said, and Sirius rather thought he had a point.

The next two days passed by in much the same manner—they'd tend to their individual sub-experiments first thing, and then spend the rest of the day engaged in intensely scientific conversation. At some point, Sirius had begun referring to the Experiments by their names, and if he spent a bit longer simply talking to Remus about whatever the first thing on his mind was, well. Nobody needed to know.

Sirius walked into the lab on the fifth day, light still off. He kept making the necessary adjustments in the dark—even after almost a full week working there, Sirius was still pretty convinced that at least _some_ major ethics code had been violated, and the dimness of the lab made it seem… not more above-board, per se, but more palatable, at least.

"This is my first Saturday here, Remus," Sirius said, going over to the shelves where supplies were stocked and pulling out the various packets of nutrients. "You know, I probably should have read the contract a bit more closely—they didn't _say_ anything to us about needing to come in on weekends." He began to measure out the packets: vitamins A, B12, C, D, iron, various proteins… "Lily promised us we wouldn't be here too long, though. Maybe she'll let us go home right after we're done tending to you guys?" Satisfied with his mixing, Sirius turned to Remus' tank, walking over to the little slot on the side where he had to insert the nutrient powder. "What do you thin-woooaaaahhhhmygod."

Yellow eyes—yellow even despite the blue-toned light emitted by the tanks—were looking at Sirius curiously. Sirius gaped, and the eyes blinked. _Remus is— Remus is—_ the small metal bowl Sirius had been using as a transport container for the nutrients clattered to the ground.

Remus blinked again, eyes darting first down to the bowl, then back to Sirius. He tilted his head sideways. _Like a dog,_ Sirius thought, still in shock. Slowly, Remus raised a hand, and then, even more slowly, placed it up against the side of the tank, fingers splayed. Sirius could see the prints of his fingers.

In a daze, Sirius stepped closer, staring at Remus, who merely blinked back. Sirius raised a hand of his own, and placed it on the tank, lining his fingers up with Remus'.

Remus' nails were longer.

" _Oh my God,_ " Sirius said again. Sirius took a deep breath, and then the words _never gained consciousness, so the project was suspended_ swam before his eyes, and Sirius snatched his hand back. "Shit shit shit fuck _fuck_ ," he said, turning around and almost tripping on the bowl.

He took another breath, forcing himself to calm down. He slowly turned to look back at Remus, who just tilted his head to the other side and blinked. His hand was no longer pressed up against the tank.

" _McGonagall,_ " Sirius breathed, then raced out the lab, not even caring about the mess on the ground. He was pacing the elevator when he realized he had no idea where McGonagall's office even _was._ "Fuckity fuck," he muttered to himself. The elevator dinged to the main floor, and Sirius burst out.

"Mr Black?" asked Mr Podmore, looking at Sirius like he'd lost his mind. Which Sirius was very well about to do, in all reality, so he couldn't fault Mr Podmore.

"Where's McGonagall?!" Sirius said, louder and more forcefully than he intended. He gulped. "Ah, sorry, I mean, could you show me where Professor McGonagall's office is?"

Mr Podmore opened his mouth to reply, when he was cut across by a sharp voice.

"There'll be no need, I was just checking the mail," McGonagall said, appearing from behind the wall. Sirius could have cried with relief.

"Oh thank God, Professor, one of the—Remus—his eyes—he—he's awake!"  Sirius managed to stutter out, losing all of his usual eloquence.

Professor McGonagall pursed her lips, eyebrows high. "Really? Are you certain?"

"Yes! Yes I was just down there, trying to load the nutrient stuff and I looked up and he was looking back at me!"

McGonagall's eyebrows resumed their normal position. "Right," she said, handing her mail to Mr Podmore. "Please hold this for me," she told him, and he took it, brows furrowed. Then McGonagall turned back to Sirius. "Please, show me," she said, not waiting for Sirius before making her way to the elevator.

After a second, Sirius joined her, the ride down being taken in uneasy silence. They stepped out, Sirius tailing behind McGonagall's long steps as she walked to the lab, opening the door and flicking on the lights. The mess Sirius had made on the ground was starkly visible, and McGonagall tutted.

Remus, for his part, was asleep in his tank (Sirius decided he could think on when Remus had become a 'he' instead of an 'it' later), looking for all the world like he had the entire last week. McGonagall didn't even say anything, just raised a single eyebrow at Sirius.

"No, no, he's awake, I promise, I—" Sirius took a breath. "Okay, okay, watch this, I think it might work, I—just, hold on," he said, stepping up to the tank and wiping his palms on his lab coat.

He cleared his throat, and then place a hand carefully on the side of the tank. He thought he saw a twitch of Remus' eyes behind his eyelids. _Is he actually…_ faking _being asleep…?_ Sirius thought for a second, before brushing the thought away. Didn't matter.

"Remus," he said. "Remus, wake up."

A second passed with bated breath, and Sirius heard McGonagall shift, no doubt impatiently behind him.

"Mr Black, if you—" McGonagall didn't get any farther, because at that moment, Remus moved.

His eyes, too yellow to be human, even under the blue lights, met Sirius'.

Sirius could have _sworn_ they held a glimmer of amusement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. you _know_ sirius and james don't give enough fucks to not carry cross-body-strap-bags (whatever they're called)  
>  2\. perflourocarbon is (i think) the substance that lets you breathe 'underwater'


	5. Aquarius

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Gift of air, gift of life._

Remus blinked again, effectively shattering the moment. McGonagall muttered something under her breath that Sirius didn't quite catch, but appeared to be an incredibly vehement curse. Sirius resisted the urge to inquire further, and instead removed his hand from the tank. Remus cocked his head at Sirius again, and tapped his nails once against the glass of the tank.  

"Mr Black, please follow me," McGonagall said, turning abruptly on her heel, her white coat flaring out behind her. Throwing one last glance over his shoulder at Remus, who appeared crestfallen, Sirius followed her. She led him upstairs then through a corridor to a room that was very clearly her office, whereupon she immediately began rummaging through one of her cupboards.

Sirius was half-convinced she was going to pull out a bottle of gin, but instead, when she turned back to face him, she was proffering only a container of biscuits.

"Have a biscuit, Mr Black," she said.

Sirius took one. McGonagall also did, and they ate in silence for a few minutes until Sirius mustered up the courage to speak.

"Um, Professor? I'm not in trouble, am I?"

McGonagall sighed. "Not in as many words, no."

"Please don't fire me."

At that, McGonagall laughed wryly. "I wouldn't fire you even if I wanted, now."

"…I see," Sirius said, doing his best to convey the fact that no, he didn't actually see anything at all.

"You read the file on Gemini?"

"Yes?"

"Well, I'm afraid that wasn't the complete file."

"…Right."

"Do you know anything about Fenrir Greyback?"

"Greyback? Isn't he, like… A major Death Eater of some sort?"

McGonagall nodded. "Yes, we strongly believe he is the man behind the… _creatures_ that the Death Eaters possess. He is also, unfortunately, an ex-employee of Hogwarts." McGonagall took another one of her biscuits and shot Sirius a pointed look. Sirius frowned for a moment, then began to connect the dots.

"No way… Gemini didn't have a scientist listed, there's no way…"

"I'm afraid you are absolutely correct, Mr Black. Gemini is, in fact, the pet project of Fenrir Greyback."

"Oh, boy."

"Yes, you could say that again. You see, in addition to a frankly alarming number of modifications on the genetic level—we even tried to determine where the human DNA used came from, but it had been so heavily spliced that even our best reconstruction would only have narrowed it down to approximately forty percent of the human gene pool—Gemini also possesses what he called 'imprinting capabilities'. Think along the lines of a duck."

Sirius felt a distinctive sinking feeling in his stomach. "Uh-oh."

"Again, yes. As you've probably guessed by this point, Experiment II seems to have imprinted on you." McGonagall glanced severely at him over her glasses."Though I can't even begin to fathom why it would be awake. Care to shed some light on the subject?"

Sirius gulped. "I, er. Tend to talk. To myself. When I'm, er, working. And I may have also begun talking to Re—the experiment…"

McGonagall pinched the bridge of her nose. "That would be it, of course. Trust that the only person who would actually _talk_ to an experiment suspended in perflourocarbon would be the person _assigned_ to said experiment…"

Sirius shrank back in his seat as far as he could. "Sorry," he mumbled.

To his surprise, McGonagall waved it off. "At this point, it's too late for apologies, don't fret yourself overly much," she said, and Sirius took a second to wonder whether she was actually excusing him or not. "In any case, you'll be occupied being Experiment II's handler, I hope you won't mind if we leave the contract as is for the time being? Paperwork is rather tedious and frankly there are other things you should be doing at this point."

Sirius blinked twice. "Pardon?"

McGonagall gave him an odd look. "I was rather under the impression you were one of the brightest in your field, Mr Black." She paused for a moment, as if allowing Sirius the chance to provide a rebuttal. He didn't. Eventually, McGonagall continued: "Experiment II has imprinted on you. Likely, it will not listen to or reason with or _obey_ anyone else. Whether you like it or not, it now falls to you to train it."

"Train him?"

McGonagall nodded solemnly, leaning forward and staring Sirius down. "Mr Black, we are mere _steps_ away from open war at this point in time. The enemy—Death Eaters and their leader—are growing more powerful by the day, and relying on increasingly advanced technology. Project Gemini, created by the very man who gave the Death Eaters their technology, might be the only in that we have. We have scarcely come up with anything comparable as of yet. Thus, at the moment, our biggest and safest bet is Experiment II. It needs to be trained accordingly—and, as handler, you will oversee this."

Sirius gaped. "I—sure, okay, but I think you're forgetting a key point here—I don't know anything about—about anything, about training, _anything_!"

McGonagall nodded once again, this time pensive. Then she stood, walked over to a cupboard, opened it, and proceeded to open the combination-locked safe contained inside. Apparently, it was a file cabinet of some sort, because McGonagall pulled out a manila folder and handed it to Sirius, who took is with a vague sense of déjà vu. McGonagall sat back down, shaking the biscuit tin at Sirius, and he obligingly took another.

"For now, settle on following extraction protocol. I'll see to discussing with Professor Dumbledore about what should be done, as well as procuring other information for you."

Sirius stared at the folder in his hands. On the cover, it bore a stamp that read 'Gemini: Phase II'. "Er, alright."

"Oh, and one last thing, Mr Black," McGonagall said, opening one of her desk drawers and pulled out something that looked suspiciously like—

"Is that a _Taser?_ "

"Yes, although I could greatly appreciate it if you didn't go about telling it all over the place. Regardless of imprinting, Experiment II is dangerous. It would bring me some minor peace of mind if you were to carry this with you. I trust you know how to work it?"

"I—yes," Sirius said, completely bewildered and, if he was completely honest with himself, somewhat scared.

"Good," McGonagall said, handing the Taser to Sirius, who took it gingerly. "Now then, you are dismissed. And please, on your way back, do tell Lily and the others that you won't be back at Project Wolfstar discussions for the foreseeable future."

Sirius nodded, tucking the Taser into one of his lab coat's pockets and tightening his hold on the manila folder. He nodded once again to McGonagall, and then took his leave. Just before he closed the door, he thought he caught a glimpse of McGonagall leaning back in her chair, one of her hands slowly rubbing her  eyes under her glasses.

Sirius backtracked his way downstairs (took him two false turns, but in the end he managed) and opened the door to their group meeting room.

"Finally," Lily said, glaring.

James was immediately in Sirius' personal space, hands on Sirius' shoulders and sing-songing. "Bro, I thought you got eaten, bro." Sirius looked at him, any and all retorts dying in his throat as James' words brought to mind the full magnitude of the mess Sirius now found himself in. James frowned, dropping his hands, and opened his mouth to speak, but Peter beat him to it.

"Sirius, are you alright?" he asked, worry etched over every one of his features. Sirius considered for a moment, then shook his head.

"Remus is awake, and I'm his handler. And trainer," Sirius said, glancing down at the folder again.

"What?" James asked, as the said time Lily said, "Your project?" Sirius nodded.

"And McGonagall gave me a Taser," he added helplessly. Lily looked at him with a shrewd gaze, Peter with a terrified one, and meanwhile James looked like he couldn't decide whether it was more appropriate to be horrified or excited, and kept vacillating between the two. It seemed no one really knew what to say, Sirius least of all.

There passed a moment of silence amongst them before Lily stepped up to the task. "Alright then. I'm assuming that folder is a set of instructions on how to proceed further, so how about you get on that and we'll handle discussions from here on out, hm?"

"Wait, shouldn't one of us go with him?" James interrupted, looking at Lily in shock—Sirius bemusedly noted that this was probably the first time she'd ever received anything but agreement and awe from James. Lily, however, shook her head.

"McGonagall gave him a Taser, meaning there's probably danger involved, but she also isn't down here herself, meaning it's nothing Sirius can't handle. And if he hasn't been instructed to bring us along, then there's probably also a reason for that."

McGonagall's words about obedience flashed through Sirius' mind, and he swallowed, nodded, and said, "Yeah, that. That sounds about right. Okay. Yeah. I'll just. Get going then."He made to turn around and exit the room, but was stopped by James grabbing his arm. He turned, meeting James' gaze with his own.

 "Hey," James said, giving a minute nod and squeezing Sirius' arm gently. Sirius smiled weakly; it was the same way James had comforted him while he's been going through the process of cutting off ties with his family.

"Thanks," he said, putting his free hand over James' and squeezing back.

"Good," James returned, then took his hand away and playfully shoved Sirius forward. "If you die, ring me, yeah?"

"Jerk, I'll fucking _haunt_ you, that's what," Sirius said over his shoulder, considerably in better spirits as he walked out the door.

"You can _try!_ " James managed to get in before the door closed, muffling whatever subsequent sound there was. Sirius walked towards the by-now familiar door, light blue glow seeping out through the little window. He took a deep breath.

Then he opened the manila folder, reading quickly through the instructions on the first page, labeled 'Phase II: Extraction Procedure'. They were surprisingly uncomplicated, though the footnote that the switch from perflourocarbon to air 'posed the potential to cause pain' did worry him a bit.

"Well, whatever, too late for take-backsies now, I suppose…" he mumbled to himself. He took another deep breath, and then opened the door. The lights were still on from when McGonagall had come inside, and Remus—

—well actually, of all the things Sirius had been prepared for, the sight of Remus in his tank, flipped upside down and getting wires tangled everywhere, definitely wasn't one of them. As soon as Remus noticed him, he flipped himself back upright. He pressed both palms against the side of the tank, cocking his head at Sirius, who snorted.

"Sprightly, aren't you," he said, and Remus nodded eagerly. Sirius stepped closer, squinting at him. "Can you actually understand what I'm saying?" Once again, Remus nodded. Sirius hmphed. "Well then, I'm supposed to be taking you out of this thing. You should know, though, I have a Taser with me, so don't… I don't know, attack me or anything, alright?" This time, Remus shook his said, a somber expression overcoming him. Sirius stared for a second, then gave himself a shake.

"Okay, well. In that case then, I'm gonna get to work, okay?" Sirius set the folder down, open to the instructions page, and began following them. Mostly they involved accessing the main panel, which was stored separately from the tanks, and so Sirius ended up facing away from Remus, for the most part. He glanced over a few times to make sure everything was working as it should have—the plethora of wires and electrodes and what had apparently been automated IV drips (Sirius vaguely made a mental note to inspect that functioning later) were all disconnecting, leaving Remus to float freely.

That done, Sirius moved on to the next step, which was draining the tank. He hooked up the appropriate tubes and cables, typed in the given passcode, and then pressed the 'begin' button. The machines whirred to life, and Sirius watched the screen, heedful of the warning that the pump needed to be shut off as soon as all the perflourocarbon was out, in order to prevent contamination and upset the gas proportions stored within the substance.

The tank was draining faster that Sirius had expected, when loud hacking cough startled him into turning around. Remus was on the ground, on hands and knees, sounding for all the world like he was choking, or at the very least drowning. As Sirius watched, frozen in place, Remus' entire body shuddered, and he began to cough again, perflourocarbon dripping from his mouth. Some of it was tinged red, and that fact propelled Sirius into action.

"No, wait, shit, _fuck_ ," he said, scrambling to find the release on the side of the tank, Remus' hacking continuing, accompanied by heaving gasps and pained groans whenever he was able. "Shit, shit, shit," Sirius muttered, looking at the complex locking mechanism on the side of the door.

He rushed back to where he's set the instructions down, scanning them again for any sign of unlocking the tank's door. Just in time, he remembered that the pump had to be shut off, and Sirius quickly typed the passcode in again, the whirring background dying out and leaving only a cough. Sirius hastily continued his search through the instructions, finally coming across the section he wanted.

"Okay! Okay, okay, right, left, left, thirty-four…  right, left, left, thirty-four, okay," he said, moving back over to the tank. "I'll be there in a sec, Remus, hold on, just—oh thank God, okay, right… left, left…" a keypad popped up. "Thirty-four!" Sirius hit enter on the pad, and for a second he worried he'd done something wrong, but then the walls of the tank shuddered, and then began to sink down into the floor.

Sirius scrambled over them as soon as he was able to, crouching down next to Remus, not caring that his knees were getting a bit wet with perflourocarbon. By this point, Remus' coughs had died down a little, so Sirius settled for rubbing his back and muttering a constant litany of soothing-sounding words, and occasionally patting it a bit harder, every time Remus coughed again.

They stayed like that for a while, Sirius' brain completely flat-lining on him and leaving him incapable of anything more. Eventually, Remus' coughing slowed down to ragged breathing. His arms were trembling, and after a few more seconds, Sirius made to stand, bending down to loop an arm around Remus' shoulder and bring him up as well. He weighed far more than Sirius would have guessed.

"Here, okay, c'mon, stand up, that's it, let's… can you stand on your own for a second?" Sirius asked, blushing faintly because, despite everything, Remus was still very much naked. His chest expanded a few times under Sirius' hand, but eventually he nodded. Sirius drew his hands away, quickly unbuttoning his lab coat and taking it off. Remus swayed a little, but remained standing.

Sirius then flung the coat around Remus' shoulders, getting his arms through the sleeves, and then buttoned the first few buttons up. Remus looked ridiculous, but appeared to shiver a bit less. He looked at Sirius with an inscrutable expression, and Sirius, in a fit of not having the slightest idea what to do, motioned over to a chair that stood against a wall.

"Why don't we get you sat down over there, does that sound good?" he asked, not really waiting for Remus' response before helping him walk over to the chair, and sitting him down. Remus pulled his knees up to his chest once he was seated, his toes hanging off the edge of the seat.

"Okay, erm." Sirius stared for a few seconds, completely at a loss. What did one do with a newly extracted experiment created by the very man that was essentially a terrorist with unknown motives that one was supposed to be coming up with a defense against? "Oh, I'll—yeah, how does water sound?" As expected, Remus didn't really answer.

Sirius walked over and rummaged in a cabinet, pulling out an unused beaker, and then filled it with distilled water from the sink's fancy add-on. He carried it back to Remus, who was still shaking mildly under Sirius' lab coat.

"Here," Sirius said. Remus blinked up at him, then at the beaker, and finally he extended a hand. He flexed it a few times, and then took the beaker, his claws clicking softly on the glass.

Remus brought the beaker to his nose, sniffed it, and then finally took a sip. He licked his lips, lending the beaker a look of heavy consideration, and then downed the rest of the water in two large gulps. Somewhat sheepishly, he held the beaker back out to Sirius.

"Do you want more?" Sirius asked, and Remus nodded, so Sirius went and filled the beaker up once more. This time, Remus drank slower, and when he was done he didn't hand it back to Sirius, but rather curled both his hands around it, staring at it for a couple of seconds.

Then he looked up at Sirius, what might have been a smile on his lips. "Thank you," he said.

"Oh," Sirius replied. "Oh, you can talk."

Remus just nodded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shhh we're just gonna opt for the 'it's advanced technology' thing to explain why remus can talk and understand speech, and also why his muscles aren't completely atrophied from non-use, and also how he knows how to use a cup... FUTURE SCIENCE, GUYS ~~remember the thingies with audiovisual stimulation and whatnot yes let's pretend you're able to learn while unconscious~~
> 
> also, if you find any typos, please let me know, it's almost 4 am and i don't know that my spellchecking skills are being top notch right now ^^;;


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